Wednesday, August 30, 2017

U.S. (Babylon Bee) - After numerous prominent Christians and everyday believers alike signed the Nashville Statement affirming basic Christian doctrine held with rare exception for 2,000 years, progressives across the nation flooded the internet in droves to voice their horror and disgust at the shocking set of beliefs.

“I can’t believe these people would just come out and blatantly state something Christians have unflinchingly agreed on for millennia,” one liberal Christian wrote on Twitter. “It’s absolutely beyond callous.”

“It’s 2017, for crying out loud. I can’t believe we have to deal with people who disagree with us in the current year!” he wrote in his insightful 8,000-word blog post.

At publishing time, the many bigoted backers of the Nashville Statement had still refused to apologize for their horrific act of affirming beliefs that most progressive Christians evolved beyond at least two or three years ago.

Not having read the Nashville statement, I'll assume your summary is accurate.

That being the case, Mike, are you saying you would be on board with the Nashville Statement if it *had* specifically addressed divorce and domestic abuse? In other words, your problem with it is that the statement doesn't go far enough.

Because there are not too many pride parades for alcoholism, abortion, divorces, simony and all other more common problems. Because churches are not being pressured to sanction and bless these other sins.

Albert Mohler, one of the Nashville Statements signatories answered you question this way:

"Well, that is a good question. It’s a fair question to ask in today’s contemporary context. Why does the church find itself so regularly, in terms of controversy and conversation, about the questions a sexuality? And the reason comes down to this: There is no way to avoid them. This is a society, as a whole, that puts these issues of sexuality right on the front burner in virtually every single edition of the newspaper, just about every single day’s cycle the news, and, furthermore, in terms of public and policy conversation. But furthermore, the Christian church is being directly asked the question: Is this right; is this wrong? Will you bless this; will you not? Will you conduct a same-sex marriage or would you not conduct a same-sex marriage? These are unavoidable questions, that’s why there is no place to hide."

Or maybe the real answer is this:"That those supporting the Nashville Statement are not doing so because they believe the Word of God, but because they are homophobic, neo-nazi white supremacists who worship Donald Trump—which makes sense, as long as you don’t think about it for longer than about three seconds." - Babylon Bee 9/1/2017

So Mike, since you started this thread about your concerns with the Nashville Statement why don't you tell us exactly why should they not answer the questions that society and the media are asking?

I mean so far we've learned that according to you it doesn't address all of the problems of marriage, as stated in your original post. I guess that could be a valid concern if the Nashville Statement was meant to be about problems in marriage. But it isn't - that was your deflection to create criticism. So a statement that was NOT about problems in marriage doesn't address all the problems in marriage. And?

Next the deflection went to alcoholism, divorce, abortion, etc, which certainly can be problems in marriage. And now it's from alcoholism to any place where alcohol is consumed! Are you truly upset that some church leaders are discussing sexuality instead of leading temperance movements? Really?

And finally you say that you haven't seen, "a single case, when the Church was forced to allow homosexual marriages." Very observant of you! Did I say there were? Did the signatory to the Nashville Statement that I quoted above say that? No and no. Let me quote part of that again:

"...the Christian church is being directly asked the question: Is this right; is this wrong? Will you bless this; will you not? Will you conduct a same-sex marriage or would you not conduct a same-sex marriage? These are unavoidable questions, that’s why there is no place to hide."

Now some churches are answering question these questions in the affirmative. Five blocks from where I am currently typing this is literally a church with a rainbow banner across the front of their building. Are they correct to answer this sexuality question before they purge the social drinkers, divorcees, or Planned Parenthood contributors from their ranks? I know they have done none of that and are in fact "pro-choice" (pro-abortion) according to their denominations web page.

Are only LGBT affirming answers to the questions allowed? Or should there not be a scripturally based response given to counter?

I'm not quite sure what your beef with it is outside that it doesn't address the issues you feel it should address. But with that standard we can attack pretty much any statement or document simply based on what topic it covers. And it's not like they pulled the topic out of thin air to stir the pot.

OK, now where's this temperance movement that should have priority? Let's smash some saloons!

To be clear, the obviously satirical article pokes fun at outraged liberals (“I literally can’t even” and “current year” are too on the nose for it to be anything else), but the Nashville Statement is real, and there really have been some pretty silly responses to it.

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."